We can spend so much time trying to navigate ourselves through our own story. We are always Trying to figure out what parts we can use, trying to accept the parts we wish didn’t exist , all while trying to understand that we have complete control and absolutely no control over it all.
Each of us has a story, it’s complied with everything we’ve gone through in our lives. Choices we’ve made, the good, the bad, and everything that is in-between that.
In my line of work, I’m always trying to figure out how I can use my story to relate to the youth around me. In some way, I feel like it justifies everything I’ve gone through, it reminds me that any trial I’ve had has not been in vain. The truth of the matter is, even parts of our life that were less than favorable play a huge part of who we are. It doesn’t matter if we “feel” like we can use it, and it doesn’t matter if we “feel” like it brings us shame.
Sometimes, we can be so ashamed of our story, that we spend most of our time trying to out run it in hopes that we can prove to others that we are doing just fine despite of it. What we have to remember, is it is so much more than what we see. It’s more than the pain we’ve endured and it’s more than the success we’ve had. Beyond our story is a God who walks before us seeing everything.
To be completely transparent most of my healing has taken place from the seeds that my own story has planted. Those seeds were tears on the hard days, souls I’ve lead to Jesus, and even people I lost along the way.
What if the pain in your story sets someone free? What if every tear you cried is so someone else doesn’t have to cry one?
When you own what you’ve been through you walk in a different kind of freedom. Your not worried about someone telling your story because you know you have told it yourself. The enemy will try to convince us that we are not qualified for certain things because of where we have came from.
Beyond your story stands you. A person who has endured, a person who didn’t sink when they should have, a person whose hands are not tied down by the weight of their past.
Our stories don’t end until God says so, but he has never meant for us to get caught reliving a certain chapter over and over again. Move beyond it, take the tools and turn the next page.
Your lessons were learned, keep moving forward.